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Microsoft, a Linux fan

Did you know that Microsoft doesn't use Windows but... Linux for a wide range of its projects? Take Azure, for example.

In recent years, you may have read references to WSL (or WSL2 ) and to a Linux distribution created by Microsoft, namely CBL (Common Base Linux) Mariner.

Even with Windows11, Microsoft continues to improve the WSL user experience.

While CBLMariner is used to power WSLg (the GUI part of WSL 2), recent press coverage on ZDNet revealed that Microsoft also uses another Linux distribution internally.

Microsoft really does love Linux, doesn't it?

For example, Microsoft maintains a Debian-based distro, which is used to power Azure's Cloud Shell. It is called "CBL-Delridge".

Thanks to Hayden Barnes, a Windows container engineering manager at SUSE. In one of his blog posts, dated February 2022, he provides details about Delridge, as well as instructions on how to build it and import it into WSL.

CBL-Delridge (CBL-D) is based on Debian 10 (Buster), unlike CBL-Mariner, which is built from the ground up.

It's no surprise that Debian is favored here. Even Google has abandoned Ubuntu in favor of Debian for its internal Linux distro gLinux.

It's interesting to note that Microsoft released the distro in 2020 for internal use (according to an unofficial timeline followed by Hayden, of Microsoft's interactions with free software) and while we're reading about it in 2022.

Full article https://news.itsfoss.com/microsoft-debian-distro